Southern painted turtle rare in these parts

Sunday, March 25, 2012

There are four kinds of North American painted turtles (the eastern, midland, southern and western). My photo here is of a southern painted turtle. It is the only North American painted turtle to have a red-orange stripe running the top of the shell from head to tail. The southern painted turtle is the smallest of North America's painted turtles. The one in this image was a little over four inches in shell length.

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